tBlog

I know it’s lame, but after growing a bit of hair I realized it wasn’t something I was really into, so I have to say…

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

…anyone disappointed in my very sad pun has my full support.

Canberra is not the most glamorous and lively place in Australia…in fact, upon telling any man-on-the-street in Sydney that you live here will earn the response “oh, Canberra is dead.” Simply because it’s not on the coast, there’s no real reason to come to Canberra unless you’re a Uni student or a politician. Despite its lack of urban character, it’s not a bad place for learning about life in Australia and is well suited to getting some education.

The campus is right next to the Civic Centre, a network of shops, restaurants, cafés, and pubs that also includes the local mall, the Canberra Centre (where one can find WalMart’s Aussie presence, Big W, as well as all the additional mall usuals). Because it’s the city centre, all the businesses feel justified in charging premium prices. Soon, we’ll be moving from on-campus UniLodge to the suburb of Reid, just on the other side of Civic. After moving into the house, the walk to campus will include a stroll through Glebe Park, which will be a nice addition to any day. Thus far, the best entertainment has been found at Three Mothers Thai restaurant and the Wig & Pen, a local microbrewery with plenty of pub atmosphere. Being the national capital, Canberra is also home to several yet-to-be-seen memorials and tourist attractions. Be sure to check out the photo of the bizarre statue featuring two sheep who have just undressed and are ready to get it on.

The campus sits at the foot of Black Mountain, which hosts the Australian National Botanical Gardens. At it’s peak is Telstra tower, a monstrosity built of satellite antennae and dishes. There’s plenty of wildlife around, including kangaroo and echidna on the mountain and a miscellany of birds. Aussie possums scamper around the ANU campus at night, scrounging for anything they can find. For the most part they’re comfortable around humans, and will happily gobble up any food tossed to them. A short finger of Lake Burley Griffin extends onto campus grounds, and the wetland area is stocked with ducks and Australian Black Swans, who’ve just hatched a mini-flock of cygnets.

Sundays we go to the fresh food market in Fyshwick, a short bus ride from Civic. Their fresh crumbed fish, chips, and salad lunch is an afternoon treat to be anticipated, especially by someone who grew up as far from the ocean as possible in North America. The markets sell all types of fresh vegetables, fruit, poultry, beef, and seafood.

While Australia is host to a whole myriad of delectable ethnic cuisine, one thing they’re missing here in Canberra is someplace to nosh on authentic Mexican fare.  While my good friends at Byron Bay Chilli Co. provide a store-bought option, I’ve found that the best way to get truly tasty salsa that’s worth having more than a few bites of is to make it myself.  Continuing with the do-it-yourself Mexican theme, yesterday I did a search for a homemade tortilla recipe, and found myself at the Homesick Texan’s site.  Her blogspot’s got heaps of downhome recipes, most recently featuring Grandma’s Peach Pie and Habañero Peach Salsa.

For a first attempt, this flour tortilla recipe yielded a deliciously crispy and chewy batch of deliciousness to wrap around some spiced steak, shreds of Tasty cheese and crisp lettuce.  They take a bit of time to make but the results are undeniably worth the effort.  Thanks again, Texan - I’ve just spied your recipe for refrigerator dill pickles and can’t wait to give them a shot : )

Texas Flour Tortillas (adapted from The Border Cookbook by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison)
Ingredients:
Two cups of all-purpose flour (can make them whole wheat by substituting one cup of whole-wheat flour for white flour)
1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of salt
2 teaspoons of vegetable oil
3/4 cups of warm milk

Method:
Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and oil.
Slowly add the warm milk.
Stir until a loose, sticky ball is formed.
Knead for two minutes on a floured surface. Dough should be firm and soft.
Place dough in a bowl and cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap for 20 minutes.
After the dough has rested, break off eight sections, roll them into balls in your hands, place on a plate (make sure they aren’t touching) and then cover balls with damp cloth or plastic wrap for 10 minutes. (It’s very important to let the dough rest, otherwise it will be like elastic and won’t roll out to a proper thickness and shape.)
After dough has rested, one at a time place a dough ball on a floured surface, pat it out into a four-inch circle, and then roll with a rolling pin from the center until it’s thin and about eight inches in diameter. (If you roll out pie crusts you’ll have no problem with this.) Don’t over work the dough, or it’ll be stiff. Keep rolled-out tortillas covered until ready to cook.
In a dry iron skillet or comal heated on high, cook the tortilla about thirty seconds on each side. It should start to puff a bit when it’s done.
Keep cooked tortillas covered wrapped in a napkin until ready to eat.
Can be reheated in a dry iron skillet, over your gas-burner flame or in the oven wrapped in foil.
While you probably won’t have any leftovers, you can store in the fridge tightly wrapped in foil or plastic for a day or so.
Makes eight tortillas.

Britney’s comeback is lackluster and pathetic. While the song isn’t the worst she’s ever done, her big performance at Sunday’s VMAs left much to be desired. She looked tired, spray-tanned, and a little too chubby to be sauntering around in sparkly bra and panties. Blundering around onstage amidst a posse of dancers is fine if she’s actually singing the vocals, but if she’s going to continue her lip syncing escapades she needs to be dancing her ass off. I’m sad to see her go… the music world moved on without her while she was boozing and partying and popping out babies.

For anyone worried that Britney’s demise will send the dance pop genre into a downward spiral, check out the second clip of Aussie sensation Ricki Lee (formerly of the Young Divas and Australian Idol) in her “Can’t Touch It” video. Her live performances of the song are less glamorous and choreographed, but only because she actually sings — check ‘em out on YouTube.

Here’s a big hearty thumbs up and thank you to the folks at Byron Bay Chilli Co. here in NSW. Alex has just popped over to the desk with some corn chips and a jar of their salsa, which is actually quite good. Aussie salsa tends to be more like ketchup than anything you’d find in Stateside Mexican restaurants, so I’ve been making my own. Steaming tomatoes and chopping chillies, garlic and onions is hard work! I look forward to finding more of their fine products at the grocer, and it’s nice to know that I really can get quality salsa on this giant island.

As proclaimed by Chilli John on their website, “This is the good stuff!”

After our sea journey at Narooma, the bus tour was supposed to head up the mountain to the whale museum, where we’d see one of the only assembled killer whale skeletons on the globe.  However, since there was rampant sea sickness, our trip coordinator made the executive decision to take a calmer bus ride to the nearby town of Mogo to see it’s zoo in hopes that everyone’s stomachs would settle.

The Mogo Zoo sucks.

For being in the middle of nowhere, it’s a sizeable attraction for a tiny old mining town, but the time and money spend organizing this rare animal kennel would have been better spent on another project.  Maybe it’s just that I’m used to American zoos, where there is a movement away from displaying animals surrounded by chain-link fencing and toward making their habitat much like their natural environment.  Maybe the Mogo Zoo is underfunded.  Maybe  the regulations over zoos is looser in Australia.  All I know is that most of the animals seemed suicidal, and I can’t blame them.

On the upside, they had kangaroos that you could feed through the fencing, so I’ve finally gotten a glimpse of the jumpy marsupials in their homeland.  The zoo also had a large number of fowl in their wildlife collection, and there was a big black cock on display.  They had white lions and a snow leopard, which I haven’t seen before… too bad they both looked pretty tragic behind all the fencing.  The best indication of the quality of life for the poor animals trapped in Mogo is the one-eyed dog behind the reception desk, who had half his vision chewed out by the other zoo dog, a German shepard.

Just after returning from Sydney, we were lucky enough to get in on the whale watching trip organized by the International Education Office where Alex works. Our journey took us to the South Coast and the town of Narooma, where Lighthouse Charters loaded us onto their fleet of vessels. The boat we took only held ten passengers, 7 of whom found fun in feeding the dolphins with their sea sickness. We got a chance to see a pod of dolphins who had been fishing, a huge group of Australian fur seals, pelicans and several whales. There’s a small island off the coast that creates an area of calm water where the wales like to spend time with their calves and our captain managed to get us within a few yards of a calf that was being watched over by two females. The captain also told us of the draft horses that used to live on the island, and of one who was so dissatisfied with island life that he jumped into the ocean and swam the 6 miles back to shore several times.

The photos of the whales are a little disappointing, but the experience is one not to be forgotten. They’re large and cumbersome, so they don’t do an exceptional amount of above water activity, but seeing them breech the surface and catching a glimpse of fin or tail is exciting because you get a sense of the enormity of the creature that’s in the water. All in all we were on the water around two and a half hours, and despite the sea sickness I think everyone was glad they took their chance to see something so exciting.